


inspiration aspiration

by marshie_marshmallow



Category: Persona 2
Genre: Gen, also appearances by maya maki fujii naoya and lisa, but none of them appear enough to warrant tags, sort of implied pre-ulala/yukino
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-05-30 21:09:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19411450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marshie_marshmallow/pseuds/marshie_marshmallow
Summary: In which Yukino looks for her muse





	inspiration aspiration

**Author's Note:**

> this was written for the p2xchange on twitter to celebrate innocent sin's 20th anniversary. finally was posted on twitter so i'm now free to post it here.

When Yukino and her friends graduated St. Hermelin, they had agreed to meet again when they had fulfilled their dreams. To that end, she enrolled in photography school. She also managed to land a part-time apprenticeship gig under a man named Shunsuke Fujii, where she photographed for Kismet Publishing.

Working with them was a pretty reporter by the name of Maya Amano. Maya was cheerful and peppy, though sometimes easily distracted and her head could be lost in the clouds at times. She was nothing like any of Yukino's friends but that wasn't a bad thing.

Fujii called Maya 'Makki' and Yukino 'Yukki.' It took less than a day for Maya to call her that as well.

“You sure are friendly, aren't you?” she asked.

“What's wrong with that?” Maya replied. “If everyone were friendly, the world would be a much better place, I think.”

Yukino snorted and grinned.

* * *

Mt. Katatsumuri was a favorite location of Fujii's and she could see why when he brought her along for the first time. The mountain was beautiful and she could take shots of the forests, the temple, or the wildlife all day. It was peaceful, too. A way to escape the hustle and bustle of Sumaru City, which was so much bigger than Mikage-cho.

Still, anyone could photograph a mountain. When she looked through her camera roll, the pictures didn't speak to her. Maybe she wasn't cut out for the photographer thing after all.

When she accidentally let that slip to Fujii, he laughed and told her that not everyone wanted to photograph mountains. She'd find her muse, he assured her. It would just take some time.

* * *

Yukino had dreams, sometimes, where she fought with her Persona alongside Maya and a handful of teenagers. There was a quietly fierce boy with a sword who reminded her of Naoya, a boy in eccentric clothing who was narcissistic and cared greatly for those under his watch, and a girl whose pretty foreign features hid a sharp tongue and fists of steel.

In these dreams, she gave her Persona ability to a boy as deadly as he was gentle so that he might atone for his sins. She saved a girl from walking down a path of self-destruction and the two of them ran off to protect the city, hand in hand.

When she woke up in the morning, she'd feel her Persona sitting in the back of her mind and question where these dreams came from. She'd scarcely be able to remember the faces of those kids when awake, let alone their names, but she felt as if she knew them all the same.

Every morning, she'd think _I'm going to tell Maya-san about these dreams_ and, every morning, all memory of them vanished by the time she reached the office.

* * *

“Your pictures are great, Yukino,” Maki said, looking at the arrangement of printed photographs on the table.

“They're not that special,” Yukino replied as she set two mugs of coffee down in the empty space she had left for that specific purpose.

“What do you mean? Some of these shots are _gorgeous_.”

She blushed. “Shunsuke-san could do better...”

Maki's mouth twisted, indicating that she was going into psychoanalysis mode. “What don't you _really_ like about these photos?”

“I just...” She shrugged. “I don't know. They're not what I want to be photographing, I guess.”

Maki wrapped her hands around her mug. “What do you want to be photographing, then?”

“I don't know... Something... else. Anything else. Something... Something _me_.”

“Well, what _is_ Yukino?”

“I don't _know_. What's Yukino!? Not landscapes, apparently!”

“Then why don't you vary it more? If you aren't happy with the subjects of your photos, try new things.”

Yukino took a long drink of her coffee. When she was down, she set the cup back down. “Like what?”

Maki shrugged. “Anything, I suppose. I'm sure all photographers found their muses by going out and looking for them.”

“I guess... I'm just not sure what I do want to be photographing.”

“I can't help you there, Yukino. That's something you should find out for yourself.” She took a drink of coffee and made a face. “Needs sugar.”

* * *

There was a beautiful woman with bright red hair in the lobby, chatting with Maya, just days after the whole disaster with the New World Order and the Ameno-Torifune.

“This is Ulala Serizawa,” Maya said and Yukino's brow furrowed.

“Have we met before?” she asked in lieu of a proper greeting. She felt like she might have seen that face somewhere.

Ulala shook her head. “Can't say we have... You're Ma-ya's partner, right?”

“Yukino Mayuzumi.”

“Ulala's my roommate,” Maya added. “We were just about to head out and get dinner. We haven't gone grocery shopping and we're out of food at the apartment.”

“Oh,” she said. “I'll see you tomorrow then, I guess.”

The other two women looked at each other, then back at her.

“Do you wanna come along?” Maya asked.

“What? Uh... I don't want to intrude...”

Ulala raised an eyebrow. “I don't mind if you wanna join. And Ma-ya _never_ minds.”

“The more, the merrier!” Maya said.

She rubbed the back of her neck. Going back to her apartment to eat by herself really didn't sound very appealing. “I mean if you really don't mind...”

Maya grinned and grabbed her wrist, pulling her out the door in excitement while a bemused-looking Ulala followed behind.

* * *

Yukino was shoveling ramen into her mouth while Ulala and Maya chatted. While it wasn't lonely, being there with them, it was a bit awkward. After all, it wasn't like she knew Ulala all that well.

She only paused when she heard Ulala say something about 'boxing practice.'

“You box?” Despite the surprise in her tone, Yukino found that it seemed right somehow. As if she had already known this fact.

Ulala looked at her, then shrugged. “Yeah. It's good exercise and a good way to deal with aggression. I just focus on whatever's messing with my head when I'm punching the bag and, sooner or later, it stops bothering me.”

The next words slipped out of Yukino's mouth before she even fully processed the thought. “Can I watch?”

Ulala stared at her blankly. “What?”

“Sorry! Sorry...” She covered her face with her hands. “I don't know why I said that. I've just... I mean, I'm interested in... I thought...”

“I mean, I guess I don't mind... It just caught me off-guard.”

Yukino peeked out from between her fingers. “Really?”

“I mean, sure... If you can manage to get to GOLD while I'm practicing, I guess you could watch.”

“I'd- I'd like that.”

* * *

Ulala was something else. Fighting with her fists was nothing new to Yukino but Ulala was just... amazing. Her punches were fluid and strong, better than anything Yukino could have ever hoped to achieve.

It was beautiful, in a way.

“How long have you been doing this?” she asked when Ulala paused to take a rest.

“Hm? Oh uh... A while now. Can't really remember when I started... A lot of it had to do with Makimura.”

“Who?”

“My ex. Turned out he's some kinda con artist that scammed me out of my savings. I wanted to get even... though I think he's been dealt with by now. Suou – that's a detective friend of me and Ma-ya – assured me that if he heard anything about Makimura trying to con anyone else, he wouldn't hesitate in arresting him.”

“So now you just do this for the exercise?”

“Among other reasons.”

“It suits you.”

“What's _that_ supposed to mean?”

“I... honestly, I'm not sure what I meant by that. I stand by it regardless.”

Ulala stared at her, shrugged, then turned back to the punching bag.

* * *

“Can I photograph you?” she asked one day.

Ulala, sweaty with her hair a mess and her shirt clinging to her, looked confused. “What?”

“Can I... photograph you? Take pictures... of you...?”

“Are you asking me to be your model?”

“No! … Yes. Sort of.” She waved her hands around. “I mean, I want to photograph you... doing your thing. Boxing. Action shots.”

“Oh.” She looked put off by this. “I... guess? Why the interest?”

“I just... thought it might make for some nice shots. My friend said I should try branching out to find what inspires me.”

“Are you saying I inspire you?” Ulala asked with a grin.

Yukino's mind blanked. “Uh...”

Ulala laughed. “Are you always like this?”

“Um...” She seemed unable to respond as Ulala took a long drink from her water bottle. “I, uh... I guess? You do kinda inspire me?”

“Huh... I'm flattered.”

“Um... You're welcome?”

* * *

There was a white girl in the Jeet Kune Do classes. Yukino could swear she'd seen her somewhere before.

It wasn't like she was spying on a teenager. That would be weird and creepy. She just noticed how good she was. It was impressive, in a different way than Ulala's pure strength. There was discipline and real practice in the girl's punches and kicks.

Apparently, the girl noticed one too many spied-on classes, though.

“So what's your deal?” she asked one day, having not even changed back into her school uniform.

“Heh?” Yukino hadn't even noticed her sneak up. “Oh, I'm just a photographer...”

“A _photographer?_ ”

“Oh, I'm not, like, taking pictures of you! I just mean... there's a specific woman here who I photograph. I only watch your classes to give me ideas for other shots. Also because they're just kind of fascinating...” She tilted her head, only realizing now that they were face-to-face how oddly familiar the girl seemed. “Have we met?”

She shrugged. “I don't... know. Have we...? No, we can't have. I don't know you at all.”

“Sorry, I just... your face looked familiar.”

“Well, I was involved in a very short-lived idol group. Our producer got arrested for being in on the New World Order conspiracy, though, so it kinda fell apart after that.”

“That must suck.”

The girl shrugged. “Eh, Sheba and Mee-ho were more broken up about it than I was. Not to say I wasn't upset but... I was going through a lot at the time and something had to give.”

“So now you're here?”

“I mean, I've always been taking martial arts. I just have more time for it now.”

“You're good at it.”

“I noticed you stare at me a lot.”

She turned sheepish. “Sorry, do you find it weird? I just thought... Cause the way you fight is so different from Ulala-san... I was thinking it might make a good contrast in the photos...”

“You want to take photos of me?”

“Not you specifically! Just... in general. Martial arts versus boxing...”

“You considered asking sensei and the other students if you can take pictures of the class?”

“Uh... no?”

The girl shrugged and shook her head. “Probably should've considered that instead of staring creepily.”

“Sorry about that... Uh...”

“Lisa. Lisa Silverman.”

“Yukino Mayuzumi. Nice to meet you, Lisa.”

* * *

The pictures of Ulala and Lisa weren't like photos of mountains or the cityscapes she had done when ‘branching out’ or any of the photos she took for work. It was something else.

“These are good shots, Yukki,” Fujii said, looking at them.

“Are they?” she asked. “They're kinda blurry...”

“Well, yeah but you'll get better at that in time. Especially if you can get better cameras later. What I meant was... you enjoyed taking these, didn't you?”

She blushed and nodded. “It was... different. From all the other things I've taken pictures of.”

“See?”

She was confused. “See what?”

“You found your muse, Yukki. I told you that it'd happen.”

She looked back down at the photos, finally putting together what made them different. Fujii and Maki had both been right. She'd found a subject that was hers.

It was the best feeling in the world, realizing that.

* * *

It had been years since they were all together like this. Even Mark had flown back from America.

“So?” Naoya asked.

“What?”

“Did _you_ achieve your dream?”

Yukino frowned, thinking back over her past two years of photography school and apprenticeship. She thought about mountains and cities. She thought about a boxing gym and a red-haired woman with fists that could kill. She thought about a class of Jeet Kune Do students and a blonde girl who she was sure she'd met in a dream.

She thought about photographs spread out on her table and the joy she felt when she realized she had gotten the perfect picture.

“... Yes. Yes, I did.”

Naoya grinned at her as he held up his glass. She returned both the smile and the toast.


End file.
